Goodreads vs Storygraph
I read a post by Laura at Daydreaming Dragons about this topic, so thought I'd expand on my thoughts.
If you're unfamiliar with Storygraph, it's an alternate online book tracking / review site. It offers the same tracking (counting), rating, and reviewing capabilities as GR, with a few differences. Let me introduce you to the site with a few screenshots to give you an idea of Storygraph's layout and function.
THINGS I LIKE ABOUT STORYGRAPH
1- Starting with my Home page, I like that it randomly chooses books from my TBR to-read pile to remind me of things I want to read. It shows what I'm currently reading. AND, it makes suggestions based on my reading patterns.
2- From my Stats page: I like that Storygraph (SG) lets me see my reading activity for any specific month or even compare 2 time periods to see any changes. **NOTE: With all their charts/graphs, you can click them and see exactly which books comprise that stat - SO cool!
3- NO ADS! Maybe I should have put this first. :)
4- Easy transfer of your whole GR list to Storygraph - they have a database transfer tool that makes it super simple
5- The charts! so very cool and make analyzing your reading patterns interesting (you can see a couple of mine on each month end wrap-up I do)
6- The site design - simple and clean and straightforward; easy to navigate
7- The Book Selection page: This is what you see when you enter a book title to look for info about it.
This shot is from the main book page from a book I read. You can see all the basic GR info is still available BUT it also lets you connect this book to a reading challenge or start a buddy ready with another member.
In the Community section you can see how readers rated these various themes in the book - these are checkboxes offered on each review page - see the next screenshot.
See how these categories give you a more complete idea about whether this might be the book for you than just a straightforward rating? And the 4.44 rating here is completely in line with the 4.7 on GR.
8- A new and improved review format (after you get used to it). Take a look at this review page. I particularly like that it allows for 1/2 star ratings! or even 1/4 or 3/4 stars! WOW. I like that because many of my reviews fall in the 1/2 territory and I don't have to decide whether to round it up or down.
This quick and easy questionnaire helps focus my thoughts about the book and what others might want to know. Another great feature is that it prompts for content warnings (as you can see above) and in each of those sections there's an extensive drop down menu of potential triggers to help you. I love it!
THE DOWNSIDE TO STORYGRAPH
1- It's comparatively new, therefore it doesn't have the huge established community that GR has developed when they were the only option. If you've spent years developing a large, active community and rely on it for your blogging or IG connections, this may not be for you yet. As SG continues to grow, there may come a point when the transition will make sense for you.
2- They don't always have ARC books listed very far ahead of publication date. If I search for an ARC title that is several months from publication, it often isn't listed yet. However, there is a simple process to add a book I've read if their database doesn't have it. I've done it a few times and it's quite easy. If you read primarily ARC titles, this may not be the platform for you just yet.
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT GOODREADS
1- I like the sheer volume of reviews about EVERY book that sometimes steers me to or away from certain books - there certainly are reviews on Storygraph too, just not as many.
2- GR has started to update their look to a cleaner look with a white background - wonder if that was prompted by the success of Storygraph? (a little competition can be a good thing.) I like some of the function changes like making it easier to remove a book from my TBR, etc. but I don't like others like the 'my review' section is way down the page and I'm not automatically directed there when I mark a book read. Picky stuff, but ..... stuff that matters.
JOINING STORYGRAPH
I joined SG at the end of last year so I used it for this whole year. And I kept up with GR too. After the first few books, I found it not a big deal to write the review in one or the other, copy and paste to the other. I do offer links to both sites on my reviews to encourage people to slowly start to migrate to SG.
For me and my blog, I feel like I need to keep a GR presence for a while longer so will continue rating and reviewing there. But I also want to have access to the SG charts and graphs as well as their challenge tracking. It's a bit of a dilemma. So for now, I'll maintain both - until I run out of time or a preference strongly develops one way or the other.
What do you think of the features Storygraph offers? Are there features you'd like to use? Visit the site and poke around and tell me what you think. If you do join, please friend me at terriep
